Inside Asian Gaming

January 2015 inside asian gaming 33 to keep gambling dollars from crossing their borders to these new properties. Despite all this activity, there still remains one large pocket of untapped casino growth potential in the Northeast—New York City, with a metropolitan-area population of 20 million and millions of visiting tourists. “I think there is still latent demand for casinos and casino gaming in the New York metropolitan area including Long Island, Suffolk and Queens,” says Steve Rittvo, chairman of The Innovation Group, a Colorado-based gaming consultancy and management firm. “There is a chance for real market growth there.” However, outside of New York City, gaming observers warn that growth through new casino development may be close to its peak in the Northeast. “Areas with unmet casino demand are few and far between in the US these days,” says Bill Lerner, a principal with Union Gaming Group, a Las Vegas-based investment brokerage. “New York City, Texas, Georgia, maybe parts of Florida, and that is it. Adding forms of wagering like table games to some established markets may lead to short-term growth, but otherwise the development of a new casino does not lead to overall market growth; it is taking dollars away from an existing in-state market or contiguous state.” It’s long been accepted that with nearly 1,000 commercial and tribal casinos in 39 states, the days are long gone when gambling was a novelty for Americans, an indulgence once limited to Las In the US, more casinos are coming to the crowded Northeast—and there may be too many already By Paul Doocey Northern EXPOSURE W hen you think of a hot spot for casino gaming within the United States, chances are the Northeast is not the first area that springs to mind. But the region from Pennsylvania to Maine has actually been the nexus of much casino development activity of late, thanks in large part to the voter approval of land-based resort development in Massachusetts, the decision by the New York Legislature to add four upstate casinos—three of which won approval in December—the recent approval of a second casino for Philadelphia and counter-moves in neighboring jurisdictions Feature